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EDUCATION 



THE SOCIETY OF FRIENDS 



PAST, PBESENT, AND PROSPECTIVE. 



BY 

EDWARD PARRISH. 



"Fis education forms the common mind ; 
Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclined. 
Pope. 



PHILADELPHIA. 

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 

1865. 



I* 



U V 



By Tranafep 
P.O. Dept. 
Mar 23 06 



£/ <f 



CONTENTS. 



Introductory 5 

The Past • 17 

The Early Friends 17 

English Schools 21 

American Schools 24 

The Present 30 

Schools of Orthodox Friends 31 

Private Boarding and Neighborhood Schools 34 

Culture of the Soil versus Mental Culture 36 

Cause and Effect 42 

Five Years' Review 44 

Prospective 51 

Swarthmore College 51 

The Site 53 

The Building 54 

Several Departments 57 

Relation of the Sexes at School 62 

The Scheme of Instruction 63 

Financial 70 

Appendix • • 77 



EDUCATION 



SOCIETY OF FRIENDS. 



INTRODUCTORY. 

This essay is addressed to the members of 
the Eeligious Society of Friends, and to that 
numerous class who are descended from or 
affiliated with them. 

A portion of it will be found especially ap- 
plicable to those who, having inherited estates 
or prospered in business, have incurred the 
responsibilities attendant on the possession of 
means beyond their own needs. 

Many such are free from the cares and ex- 
penses of a family, and hence naturally seek 
channels of beneficence into which to direct 
their surplus means. Others, having chil- 
dren, are sensible of the risks and responsi- 
l* (5) 



6 INTRODUCTORY. 

bilities connected with their education, in- 
creased by the prospect of an estate sufficient 
to remove from them the necessity of active 
industry and thrift. Such are especially in- 
terested in providing facilities for guarded ed- 
ucation, thus raising the standard of moral 
and intellectual culture in the community, 
while securing opportunities for their own 
immediate descendants. 

The general extension of an elementary ed- 
ucation among the masses is justly regarded 
as an essential element of the republican sys- 
tem. Its universal application has proved an 
inestimable boon to the Northern States — 
the absence of it, a prolific cause of evil in 
the South; and yet, is there not danger of 
our ideas being limited in regard to the edu- 
cation of our children by acquiescence in the 
comparatively low standard generally preva- 
lent in the public schools ? 

Every one must feel that without that 
moral culture and restraint which home edu- 
cation is supposed to supply, the Common 
School, as provided by the State, falls far 



MENTAL STIMULUS. 7 

short of fitting the pupil for the duties of life, 
or even qualifying him as a good citizen ; even 
in the matter of intellectual culture, these 
schools, as a class, fall far short of furnish- 
ing a good education. 

The child is by nature absolutely ignorant 
of the laws of its physical, intellectual, and 
moral being and of the world into which it is 
born ; and the extent to which it will acquire 
a full and complete development will be great- 
ly dependent upon the bent given to its early 
aspirations and the advantages with which it is 
surrounded. In a few exceptional instances 
what men call genius gleams out from obscu- 
rity, and overcoming every obstacle asserts a 
pre-eminence which the world is brought to 
feel and acknowledge; but this is far from 
the ordinary history of the human mind. 

It is by the stimulus of contact with active 
minds that the powers of the young are most 
obviously called forth, and, in general, in 
proportion to the talent and culture of those 
with whom it is early associated will be the 
progress of the forming and growing intellect. 



8 INTRODUCTORY. 

The same remarks apply in a degree to the 
moral sense of children. Born negatively 
innocent, they sometimes display remarkable 
aptitude for appreciating and embracing truth. 
As in the one case genius may gleam forth 
with unexpected brilliancy from the least 
promising surroundings, so in the other the 
warmth of Divine love and the light of in- 
spiration may be kindled in hearts least pre- 
pared by human culture. Yet the principle 
holds good, that the influence of the loving 
parent or teacher, full of affectionate counsel 
and admonition, and displaying daily and 
hourly fruits of righteousness and purity, is 
by far the strongest agency in promoting 
the moral and religious advancement of the 
young. Who cannot trace to such an in- 
fluence much of the good existing in him- 
self? 

The simultaneous and complete develop- 
ment of the moral and intellectual nature of 
his offspring, not forgetting a due regard to 
physical culture, is the great object of every 
intelligent and conscientious parent, and as 



MORAL CULTURE. 'J 

he looks to the means at his disposal to pro- 
mote it, his thoughts most naturally turn to 
the Religious Society with which he is con- 
nected. It is indeed one of the highest and 
most important objects of religious organiza- 
tion to furnish those facilities for moral and 
intellectual improvement which are beyond 
the range of the family circle. 

Friends have peculiarities, not of manners 
and forms only, but of principle, which are 
especially obvious in the moral training of 
their children. Without stating these in de- 
tail, it may serve our purpose to refer to a 
single feature in the faith of our Society, 
which all will recognize. It is that of the 
innate innocence of children, as contradistin- 
guished from the dogma of original sin, as 
held by most orthodox churches. 

This furnishes the key to that method of 
development which is beginning to be recog- 
nized by enlightened educators in and out of 
the Society, — the method which encourages 
and cultivates the best traits of character in 
the child, rather than attacks violently what 



10 INTRODUCTORY. 

may seem its unfavorable features of dispo- 
sition. Caution, admonition, restraint, and 
even punishment, are occasionally necessary 
in dealing with the inexperienced and some- 
times perverse, but to secure the affection and 
confidence of youth, to call into activity good 
motives and high aims, is by far the most 
easy and radical process of culture and de- 
velopment. It is a method peculiarly in ac- 
cordance with the genius of Quakerism, — 
peculiarly favorable to the growth of that 
peaceable spirit which should distinguish the 
Society of Friends. 

The sense of right and wrong present in 
the child from the early dawn of intelligence 
— the feeling which brings happiness for good 
and pain for wrong-doing — the swift witness 
— the light within — is pre-eminently recog- 
nized by Friends, and constitutes the basis of 
their moral teaching. If communicated to 
children in its simplicity, unincumbered by 
forms of expression which they cannot un- 
derstand, it will answer to their experience, 
and furnish a means of moral training before 



dymond's views. 11 

which all external restraints and physical 
punishments fade into insignificance. 

Strengthened by faith and enlightened by 
sound reason, this principle becomes a con- 
trolling influence through life, and the firm 
basis of a pure and indwelling piety. 

The present tendency, of reform in intel- 
lectual culture is peculiarly in harmony with 
the views of Friends. The question, "What 
knowledge is of most worth ?" so ably answered 
in the recent popular essays of Herbert Spen- 
cer and others, was discussed forty years 
ago by Jonathan Dymond, a standard writer 
among Friends, whose "Essays on the Prin- 
ciples of Morality" should be in the hands of 
every student, and much the same conclu- 
sions were arrived at by him. Although in 
his days education, which had so long lain 
undisturbed on "the dregs of time," was the 
same as " before England had a literature of 
its own, and when Greek and Latin contained 
almost the sum of human knowledge," yet 
he forcibly advocated the idea that, "in gen- 
eral, science is preferable to literature, — the 



12 INTRODUCTORY. 

knowledge of things to the knowledge of 
w^ords," and sketched a practical system of 
education adapted to the "middle ranks of 
society; that is, to the ranks in which the 
greatest sum of talent and virtue reside, and 
by which the business of the world is princi- 
pally carried on." 

There is doubtless some ultraism in the 
advocacy of modern schemes of educational 
reform; the ancient system of classical in- 
struction must be admitted to have merits as 
a means of cultivating the memory and exer- 
cising the reasoning powers, which commend 
it to the favor of experienced teachers; but 
it is certainly out of the reach of the masses; 
and it seems to me the more liberal education 
is popularized, the more the classics must give 
way to the natural and physical sciences, 
which are calculated to furnish inexhaustible 
objects of profitable study and contemplation, 
besides being applicable to innumerable uses 
in practical life. 

Nothing need be said in this connection in 
advocacy of liberal education for women. 



ADDRESSED TO FRIENDS. 13 

Friends, of all sects, should be foremost, not 
only in throwing open the facilities at their 
command equally to both sexes, but in associ- 
ating young men and girls in the lecture- 
room, the class-room, the lyceum, and, under 
proper supervision, in all appropriate plays 
and sports. It is fitting that they should grow 
up together in natural and mutually profitable 
intercourse, and ample experience shows that 
many of the evils of boarding-school and col- 
lege life are thus materially lessened or en- 
tirely obviated. 

It is not the purpose of this essay to appeal 
to any purely sectarian feeling — the matter in 
hand is of public and practical importance; 
but the author cannot ignore the force of those 
considerations which address themselves pe- 
culiarly to those connected with the Society 
of Friends. 

To such as sincerely love and cherish the 
Society, and adhere intelligently to the spir- 
ituality of its faith and the simplicity of its 
forms, the object of the present essay cannot 
fail to commend itself; but there is a large 
2 



14 INTRODUCTORY. 

class of nominal members and adherents of 
the Society, cherishing it through respect for 
its past history and its present high charac- 
ter, who yet feel little interest in its testimo- 
nies and little qualification for participating 
in its work. Such are invited to an examin- 
ation of the subject of this essay. Its writer 
does not believe that the Society of Friends 
has outlived its usefulness, but, on the con- 
trary, he maintains that in the matter of the 
education of youth, if in no other particular, 
it has an important sphere of usefulness and 
of duty. 

More than two hundred years have passed 
since George Fox charged those who had 
been gathered chiefly through his ministry, to 
mind the light in their consciences. During 
most of this long period, those drawn into re- 
ligious fellowship as Friends have exercised 
an influence for good which few of the pres- 
ent generation will gainsay. Mainly through 
their instrumentality the great doctrine that 
"God has come to teach his people himself," 
has been infused into religious teaching gen- 



THE SPIRIT OF SCISM. 15 

erally; through faithfulness to their enlight- 
ened convictions, liberty of conscience has been 
acknowledged, both in our own country and 
Great Britain, and powerful testimonies have 
been maintained against priestcraft and all 
oppression of the bodies and souls of men; 
against war with its barbarous and sinful 
concomitants; against intemperance, oaths, 
and many of the evils which afflict mankind. 
Both in Europe, where the organization of so- 
ciety at large was in direct antagonism to that 
Christian democracy which they preached, 
and in the Colonies of America, where their 
liberal institutions early developed a vigorous 
growth, these revivers of primitive Christian- 
ity gave a powerful impulse to enlightened 
and humane principles, the value of which is 
now recognized by many in all the Protestant 
sects. 

It cannot be denied that this once power- 
ful and united body, the representative of 
great and vital truths, has fallen a prey to the 
spirit of seism, and now exhibits the weak- 
ness which is an inevitable result. With a 



16 INTRODUCTORY. 

basis broad enough to take in every degree of 
Christian growth and experience, and an or- 
ganization designed to secure perfect equality 
of rights among its members, it has not failed 
to illustrate the wickedness of intemperate 
zeal and proscriptive intolerance; the result, 
in great measure, of ignorance and prejudice 
— of a traditional rather than an intelligent 
appreciation of its principles. May we not 
hope that this last half of the nineteenth cen- 
tury will yet see the several fragments of the 
Society of Friends honestly burying past dif- 
ferences, rising above mere verbal standards 
of belief, and moving earnestly forward in the 
practical work of our day; each seeking its 
appropriate sphere of duty, and all willing to 
co-operate in the great labor of elevating the 
standard of morals and religion in the com- 
munity? 



THE PAST. 



The Early Friends, 

Notwithstanding the generally low state 
of education among the masses in England, 
at the period of the first rise of the Society of 
Friends, there are evidences that the early 
Friends generally were not deficient in re- 
spect for liberal learning, while there were 
many conspicuous instances among them of 
great literary and scholastic attainments. 

It has been often remarked that the mis- 
sion of George Fox, himself an illiterate man, 
was rendered more widely useful through the 
men of enlarged education who were among 
the early converts to his faith. This is doubt- 
less equally true of the labors of those earnest 
and eloquent reformers by whom he was sur- 
rounded, — men who shook all England with 
their preaching, but many of whom have left 
2* (IT) 



18 THE PAST. 

to posterity no direct record of their views and 
opinions. It is mainly through Kohert Bar- 
clay, Isaac Penington, and William Penn, all 
men of deep erudition, and each representing a 
somewhat different phase of religious opinion, 
that we are made acquainted with the prin- 
ciples and tenets of Friends in their day, and 
their works have even come to be regarded 
in our time in the light of standards of doc- 
trine and practice. 

Of these eminent characters, Robert Bar- 
clay was conspicuous for "great talents highly 
improved by education and seasoned by Di- 
vine grace;" and, although his life was cut 
short in his forty-second year, his services 
in establishing and strengthening the founda- 
tions of the sect to which he was an early 
convert, and the extensive research displayed 
in his works, and the great learning with 
which he elucidated his views of Christian 
doctrine, have gained him a high place in 
the history of the stirring times in which he 
lived. 

Isaac Penington was distinguished from 



THOMAS ELLWOOD. 19 

childhood for remarkable piety and spiritual- 
ity, and having been very early converted 
to Quakerism, became an eminent instrument 
in advancing the great work to which he was 
called. As an evidence of the educational 
condition of the circle in which he moved, 
the experience of Thomas Ellwood, who, when 
quite young, was intimate in his family, pos- 
sesses considerable interest. 

Deploring his own want of learning, through 
neglect of early opportunities, of which want 
he was not rightly sensible until he came 
among Friends, Thomas Ellwood says: "But 
I then both saw my loss and lamented it, and 
applied myself with the utmost diligence at 
all leisure times to recover it, so false I found 
that charge to be, which in these times was 
cast as a reproach upon the Quakers that they 
despised and derided all human learning." 
This was said "because they denied it to be 
essentially necessary to a Gospel Ministry, 
which was one of the controversies of the 
times." 

Desiring to pursue his classical studies, 



20 THE PAST. 

Thomas Ellwood, through his friend Isaac 
Penington, was introduced to the poet Mil- 
ton, who, then wholly blind, received him at 
his apartments in London to read to him in 
such of the classics as he should appoint. 
After greatly improving himself, he became 
competent to instruct the children of Isaac 
Penington, by whom he was employed as 
tutor. He became one of the best writers 
among his contemporaries. 

The biography of William Penn, which we 
have not space to dwell upon in this essay, 
should be studied, not only by every young 
man in the religious society in which he was 
an eminent member, and in the great Com- 
monwealth he founded, but by all who would 
contemplate an example of unsullied purity 
of character combined with great talents, lib- 
eral education, and a sphere of usefulness 
such as has opened to few men in history. 

In direct relation to our subject, a single 
paragraph may be quoted from his w ell- 
known letter to his wife in regard to the ed- 
ucation of their children : " For their learning, 



ENGLISH SCHOOLS. 21 

be liberal, spare no cost, for by such parsi- 
mony all is lost that is saved; but let it be 
useful knowledge, such as is consistent with 
truth and godliness, not cherishing a vain 
conversation or idle mind, but ingenuity 
mixed with industry is good for the body 
and mind too." 



English Schools. 

As early as 1667, we find George Fox rec- 
ommending the establishment of two board- 
ing schools, — one for boys and one for girls; 
and in 1680, he mentions visiting them. At 
the boys' school, at Waltham Abbey, both 
ancient and modern languages were taught, 
as recommended during successive years by 
the London Yearly Meeting. Advice was 
further extended, "that young men of genius 
in low circumstances be furnished with means 
to procure requisite education ; and in forming 
the character, the social animal being must 
not be overlooked, but the arts and sciences, 
which might fit him to perform his duties, 



22 



better his condition, and supply his wants, 
must be included." The Shacklewell School 
for young men and girls, which was nearly 
contemporaneous, was established "for the 
teaching of whatsoever things were civil and 
useful in creation." 

Somewhat in accordance with this is the 
design so quaintly expressed in the bequest 
by which George Fox convejed to Friends 
the property at Fair Hill, Philadelphia, now 
associated with tender memories as the rest- 
ing-place of many of our departed — "for a 
meeting-house and school-house and a bury- 
ing-place, and for a play-ground for the chil- 
dren of the town to play on, and for a garden 
to plant with physical plants for lads and 
lasses to know simples and learn to make 
oils and ointments." 

Among the earliest Friends' schools in 
England were the one at Gildersome, in York- 
shire, and "Friends' School-house and Work- 
house," at Clerkenwell, an out-parish of the 
City of London, the latter supported almost 
entirely by Friends of London Quarterly 



ACKWORTH SCHOOL. 23 

Meeting. This was connected with a kind of 
alms-house for the accommodation of Friends 
in necessitous circumstances, which is men- 
tioned by the eminent Dr. John Fothergill, 
in a publication issued by him, as one of the 
reasons of its want of entire success. 

It was in the London Yearly Meeting of 
1778, that the establishment of one central 
school to meet the wants of the Society was 
determined upon, and the property was pur- 
chased at Ackworth, in Yorkshire, about one 
hundred and eighty miles from London, where 
the school still so widely known and valued 
was established. In 1779, Ackworth School 
was opened with seventy male and fifty-three 
female pupils; the number was afterward in- 
creased to near three hundred; and, accord- 
ing to the report for 1862, was in that year 
two hundred and ninety-six. Although the 
branches taught were originally only the 
English language, writing, and arithmetic, 
the grade of instruction has been gradually 
elevated to meet the demands of the times, 
and there can be no doubt that the influence 



24 



of this institution has been of incalculable ad- 
vantage, not only to individuals, but to the 
Society by which it has been fostered and 
endowed. 

American Schools. 

The founder of Pennsylvania, during the 
year after his arrival in his province, engaged 
the services of a teacher to open a school in 
Philadelphia, and in 1697 he founded the 
school, still in existence, though removed 
from its former well-known locality in Fourth 
Street below Chestnut, under care of "The 
Overseers of the Public School founded by 
Charter in the Town and County of Philadel- 
phia, in Pennsylvania." In this school Latin 
and Greek and mathematics were early taught. 
Through a long course of years not a few of 
the eminent citizens of Philadelphia have in 
it realized the truth inscribed upon its cor- 
porate seal — " Good instruction is better than 
riches." 

It has been often observed that the meet- 
ing-houses erected by our forefathers through- 



WEST-TOWN PROJECTED. 25 

out the agricultural sections of Pennsylvania 
and New Jersey are connected, in many con- 
spicuous instances, with ample school-houses, 
— monuments of the zeal of those pioneers in 
this new land to associate with the religious 
element in their polity suitable provision for 
intellectual training. 

The example set by English Friends in the 
establishment and endowment of Ackworth 
School was soon followed in the infant States 
of America. A pamphlet by Owen Biddle, 
printed in Philadelphia in 1790, was specially 
devoted to the advocacy of a school, to be es- 
tablished "within the limits of the Yearly 
Meeting for Pennsylvania and New Jersey." 
Already a Friends' school of limited extent 
had been maintained at Nottingham, Chester 
County; but the views advocated in this pub- 
lication were comprehensive, and with "a just 
sense of the importance of some such estab- 
lishment," and of the ability of the Society to 
erect and maintain it, the author zealously 
bespeaks the aid of the wealthy in large do- 
nations, and of all, according to their means, 
3 



26 



to build up an institution which would be 
"extensively useful, attract the attention of 
the Society at large, and add a reputation 
to it." 

A long and persistent labor was necessary 
to awaken the minds of Friends to the sub- 
ject, and it was not until 1799 that West- 
Town Boarding School was opened. The his- 
tory of this concern, as gathered from the 
unpublished correspondence* of those who car- 
ried it through, would occupy more space 
than comports with the scope of this essay; 
but the result accomplished is full of encour- 
agement to those who would now seek to dis- 
turb the apathy and overcome the opposition 
toward an institution aiming at the improve- 
ment and elevation of thousands yet unborn. 

During the sixty-six years which have 
elapsed since West-Town was opened, about 
five thousand one hundred and fifty girls and 
three thousand nine hundred and fifty boys 

* Some of these letters, now in the hands of a Friend, are 
of considerable interest, and it is hoped they will at some 
future time be made public. 



PROVIDENCE. SCHOOL. 27 

have participated in its advantages, — an ag- 
gregate of nine thousand members of the So- 
ciety of Friends. Who can estimate its influ- 
ence in furnishing the minds and forming the 
characters of these? 

The history of the establishment of the 
"New England Yearly Meeting Boarding 
School" is closely connected with the biogra- 
phy of Moses Brown, of Providence, R. I., de- 
scribed by his contemporaries as "a judge, a 
counsellor, an elder, worthy of double honor." 
As early as 1780, it appears a subscription 
was opened, to which he was a liberal con- 
tributor, "for the establishment of a school 
for the more select and guarded education of 
Friends' children;" but the means of Friends 
being generally limited, and the sums sub- 
scribed mostly small, it was not until 1784 
that the school was opened. After four years, 
it was discontinued on account of the inade- 
quacy of its funds, and what remained of the 
principal was invested and increased by some 
additional contributions, until in 1814 Moses 
Brown offered to the Yearly Meeting forty- 



28 THE PAST. 

three acres of ground at Providence, since 
augmented by a bequest in his will of another 
lot of land near the premises; an additional 
effort being now made to increase the inter- 
est and active co-operation of Friends, the 
buildings were erected, and in 1819 the school 
was opened. Its venerable patron died in 
1836, aged nearly a century, and the institu- 
tion has grown and prospered, continuing to 
diffuse its benefits to large numbers to the 
present time, and its numerous alumni, at 
their annual meetings attest their love and 
gratitude to their Alma Mater. 

Among those in former generations with 
whom the subject of the literary and religious 
education of children was one of life-long in- 
terest, was Joseph Tallcot, of Dutchess Coun- 
ty, New York, who, while at times engaged 
as a teacher from a sense of duty, was a zeal- 
ous advocate of associated action to extend 
the blessings of education among Friends 
generally. From Nine Partners' Preparative 
Meeting, of which he was a member, a propo- 
sition went up, through the regular channels, 



FAIRHILL SCHOOL. 29 

to the Yearly Meeting of New York, in 1794, 
as a result of which the Nine Partners' Board- 
ing School was opened in 1797: it was soon 
filled with children from various parts of New 
York, and from a few places more remote. 
The reminiscences of this institution as re- 
lated by some of its early pupils, still living, 
while they exhibit in a striking manner the 
vast improvements in literary and scientific 
education during sixty years, show the hap- 
py results of the religious care and concern 
of those having Friends' schools in charge in 
those primitive times. 

" Fairhill Boarding School," established by 
subscription about the year 1820, by Balti- 
more Yearly Meeting, was in successful opera- 
tion as a "Yearly Meeting School" about ten 
years; it has been, of late, in private hands, 
somewhat under the auspices of the Society. 

With these brief notices, we conclude the 
sketch of the more ancient Friends' schools, 
and come down to our own times, in search 
of evidences of zeal for the culture and ad- 
vancement of the young. 
3* 



THE PRESENT. 

Turning from the efforts of our forefathers 
to surround their children with educational 
advantages, we are compelled, at the outset, 
to acknowledge that the rapid strides which 
have been made by the community at large 
have left the Society of Friends, as a whole, 
far in the background. 

Since the unhappy division in 1827, which 
has been characterized by a leading states- 
man of Pennsylvania as "the greatest mis- 
fortune which ever happened to the City of 
Philadelphia," that portion of the Society 
which embraces much the largest number of 
members within the limits of Philadelphia, 
New York, and Baltimore Yearly Meetings, 
has not a single institution calculated to cen- 
tralize the learning and science of the Society, 
and to foster and encourage liberal education 
— not one in which our children can obtain 
the advantages of a really liberal education 
(30) 



ORTHODOX FRIENDS' SCHOOLS. 31 

under circumstances favorable to their be- 
coming attached to the religious organization 
of which they are members. 

The inquiry as to what Friends' schools 
within the reach of our members are best 
adapted to impart a liberal education, brings 
into view several of the ancient seats of 
learning already referred to; these, with 
several others established in our time, may 
be mentioned under the following head: 

Schools of Orthodox Friends, 

The doors of "West-Town" are closed, on 
purely technical grounds, against many of 
those who are sincerely desirous to acquit 
themselves worthily as Friends, and whose 
ancestors contributed largely to its establish- 
ment and endowment, entitling them, in 
equity, to its benefits. 

" Friends' Yearly Meeting School" at Provi- 
dence, R. I., is not so restricted, and continues 
to receive some of the Friends' children ex- 
cluded from West-Town ; though remote 



32 THE PRESENT. 

from the largest settlements of Friends, it 
is worthy the attention of parents who de- 
sire to place their children, of either sex, 
under sound instructions in a healthful and 
pleasant location. 

"Friends' Academy," at Union Springs, 
Cayuga County, N. Y., established in 1858, 
chiefly through the energy of John J. 
Thomas, of that place, and since taken in 
charge by the New York Yearly Meeting of 
Orthodox Friends, is a young and growing 
institution, open to all who are willing to 
conform to its rules. 

"The Howland Institute," of the same 
place, is confined to young women and girls; 
it is yet in its infancy, but, from the liberality 
displayed in its endowment and the excellent 
auspices under which it has been commenced, 
we may anticipate for it a career of extended 
usefulness in the future. 

For some years past a limited number of 
our young men have resorted to Haverford 
College, which, though originally established 
as a "select school," was found to require 



HAVERFORD AND EARLHAM. 33 

support from outside the pale of that part of 
the Society by whose members it was erected. 
This institution is a monument to the zeal 
and liberality of its founders, and, during 
near thirty years in which it has been in op- 
eration, has sent forth many young men of 
solid classical and mathematical attainments. 
It is, however, too expensive an institution, 
and too limited in its scope, to meet the 
views of the great mass of Friends, besides 
being confined only to one sex. 

Earlham College, located at Richmond, 
Indiana, is another and more recent evidence 
of the enterprise of that portion of the So- 
ciety, which, perhaps partly from retaining 
its connection with English Friends, and en- 
joying their counsel and assistance,* has 
sought to bring some, among the generations 
to come, under friendly influences, while im- 
parting to them the blessings of liberal 
learning. 

* Joseph John Gurney, during his tour in the Western 
States, aided the establishment of this institution, which 
bears the name of his estate in England, by a liberal dona- 
tion. 



34 THE PRESENT. 

Though controversies have embittered the 
past, and different forms of expression, and 
even different modes of faith, which have 
existed in the Society from its rise, have, 
through the divergence caused by the spirit 
of controversy, put barriers between those 
once united as Friends, surely all can re- 
joice when the zeal of the Society takes a 
practical direction toward the development 
of the intellectual powers, and the conse- 
quent diffusion of more enlarged and liberal 
views among those who are to come after us. 

Private Boarding and Neighborhood Schools. 

In this review of educational advantages 
— past and present — we must not overlook 
the private boarding schools kept by Friends, 
some of which have a high reputation far be- 
yond the limits of the Society, or the day 
schools under the care of Monthly Meetings, 
of which those in the Cities of New York, 
Philadelphia, Baltimore, Wilmington, Del., 
West Chester, Pa., and a few other places, 
are especially worthy of mention. 



friends' day schools. 35 

The policy of confining these schools to 
members of the Society has generally, of 
latter years, been superseded by that of ex- 
cluding no pupils of good character who are 
willing to conform to the rules. While this, 
without due care, may produce overcrowding 
in Friends' schools, it has the advantage of 
securing larger remuneration to the teachers 
and improved facilities for instruction; the 
benefits are also diffused and good feeling pro- 
moted on the part of those of other denomina- 
tions. It has been found, under this liberal 
policy, that Friends' schools, when well con- 
ducted, overflow with pupils, notwithstanding 
there are plenty of free schools near at hand. 

The eminent success of these day schools 
in the cities is cause of encouragement to the 
Society to improve and extend the educa- 
tional advantages furnished in smaller towns 
and in agricultural districts, — to secure the 
very best of teachers, and to pay these well 
in view of the onerous duties of their call- 
ing, the high moral and intellectual qualities 
it requires, and the responsibilities it imposes. 



6b THE PRESENT. 

Viewed with reference to the opportunities 
they afford for moral and religious instruc- 
tion, and to their possible influence in per- 
petuating and extending the Society, these 
schools can hardly be overestimated. The 
spectacle of so large a number of intelligent 
and bright countenances as are assembled 
from these schools at meetings for worship, 
has been the occasion for many fitting words 
of counsel from Friends in the ministry, and 
has frequently been -remarked upon as most 
inspiring to such as are advancing in life, and 
naturally look with emotion upon those who 
in their turn must follow them. 

Culture of the Soil versus Mental Culture. 

It is deplorable that many in the agri- 
cultural communities which constitute so 
large a portion of the membership of the 
Society of Friends in America, evince quite 
as much interest in the cultivation of the 
soil, and in realizing its products, as in the 
development of the minds of their children. 



PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM. 37 

Such are satisfied with the elementary schools 
maintained at public expense, none of which 
reach a high ideal of school education. In 
these the children are often thrown into un- 
profitable associations without any adequate 
advantages in the way of intellectual train- 
ing. The public school system, in the estab- 
lishment of which Friends had so large a 
share, is, undoubtedly, to the State at large, 
an inestimable blessing: yet it has had a 
tendency to satisfy many people in good cir- 
cumstances with comparatively careless and 
inadequate instruction, and to lessen the 
zeal formerly felt among Friends to be in 
advance of the community in the moral and 
intellectual grade of their schools. 

Of the large number of u Monthly Meeting 
Schools,"* mostly established at much sacri- 
fice by Friends of former generations, some of 
them so endowed as to be free of expense, or 
nearly so, to members of the Society, many 

* Of these there were in Philadelphia Yearly Meeting, in 
1864, forty-three, thirty-seven of which are taught by mem- 
bers of the Society — 1867 children were comprised in these. 
4 



THE PRESENT. 



suffer from want of intelligence and active 
interest on the part of committees to whom 
they are intrusted; it is a common complaint 
that the teachers employed are frequently 
inadequately paid and lack the qualifications 
to make the schools efficient. The capacities 
of the pupils are thus but poorly developed 
from lack of that stimulus which a thorough 
and pervading interest in intellectual ad- 
vancement can alone bring into action. 

Thus it happens that a large proportion of 
the talent of the Society lies undeveloped, 
the few whose minds have been awakened to 
the contemplation of the facts of science, — 
who have been brought into converse with the 
great intellects who have explored the secrets 
of the universe, find but little interest in 
such ennobling pursuits among the great 
mass of their Friends. Some of these con- 
stantly regret that the circumstances of 
their early life were unfavorable to the 
awaking of their intellectual powers, while 
others are even too ignorant to value the ad- 
vantages they have failed to realize, and busy 



EDUCATION FOR ALL. 39 

themselves in decrying that which they do 
not appreciate, because they cannot under- 
stand. 

The history of the Society shows that 
there have always been some among its 
members who, in their opposition to an edu- 
cated class, such as the clergy in other de- 
nominations, have ceased to value learning 
properly as the right of all, failing to see that 
the absence of a distinct profession, embody- 
ing the learning of the Society and monopo- 
lizing the power which learning brings, should 
constitute a strong motive for the general 
diffusion of knowledge and the multiplica- 
tion of facilities for imparting it. As each 
individual undoubtedly has some place to oc- 
cupy in the Society, and in the community 
at large, there should be, it would seem, such 
a system of development that each should 
find his place and be qualified to fill it. 

How widely different from this is the ac- 
tual state of things ! We sometimes find 
the farmer wedded to his land, fearing lest 
some of his sons may perhaps seek other 



40 THE PRESENT. 

employment — lest, if educated beyond the 
supposed requirements of a manual occupa- 
tion, they may leave it and be found among 
the haunts of men, busy with affairs which 
call forth their faculties and exercise the tal- 
ents which the all-wise Creator has implanted 
in them. 

It is mournful to see, in the thriving agri- 
cultural communities of Friends, how the 
services of the whole family are often taxed 
to the utmost upon the drudgery of the farm 
— how the lad of sixteen, each winter enjoys 
but a few months' schooling in the neighbor- 
hood school; his sister, a talented young 
woman, perhaps the future mother of a fam- 
ily of immortal beings, who are to draw from 
her their first ideas of truth and duty and 
take the mould of their mental characters 
from her own, is found laboring early and late 
in the dairy and household, cumbered with 
cares which should come only with mature 
years, and debarred from the glorious light of 
knowledge which can alone expand her facul- 
ties and fit her for the exalted position to 
which she is called. 



FALSE ECONOMY. 41 

In these strictures no invidious distinction 
is intended between persons devoted to agri- 
culture and those engaged in mechanical and 
commercial pursuits. It is believed that 
there are those among all classes who fail to 
appreciate the undoubted right of their chil- 
dren, not only to the knowledge for which 
they so often crave, but also to opportunities 
calculated to create desires for improvement, 
and to foster high and worthy aims. 

It is the "experience of some that "neces- 
sity knows no law," but where there is abund- 
ance of the good things of this life there is 
no excuse for neglecting the full development 
of the faculties of our children. In no branch 
of domestic expenditure is parsimony so mis- 
placed, in nothing is it so inexcusable as in 
the matter of education — better that the chil- 
dren should grow up without a dollar to be- 
gin life with, than that they should come to 
manhood and womanhood without their facul- 
ties being awakened and their intellects ex- 
panded by liberal learning. 



42 THE PRESENT. 

Cause and Effect. 

Viewed in its relations to the perpetuity of 
the Society of Friends and the spread of its 
principles, indifference to the subject of edu- 
cation may be regarded both as an effect and 
a cause — an effect of lukewarmness in regard 
to religious duties, and as a propagating cause 
of the same evil. 

In strong contrast to the zeal of our early 
predecessors in contending for their principles 
in the midst of persecution and even death, 
we find the Society now quietly resting in its 
traditions and forms, its members generally 
illustrating in private life the virtues which 
have grown out of its discipline and teach- 
ing, but almost devoid of that animus which 
made their early predecessors a great power 
in the earth. Toleration, secured by the 
faithfulness of our forefathers, finds most of 
us at ease in the pursuit of our private in- 
terests, but little concerned to maintain our 
organization, and almost tempted to chime in 
with the sentiment of those modern writers 



UNWARRANTABLE INDIFFERENCE. 43 

who have maintained that the usefulness and 
the influence of the Society are at an end. 

Too many of our children are brought up 
in ignorance of the instructive history of the 
Society, and of its instrumentality in promot- 
ing human rights and spreading practical 
views of Christianity; they are strangers to 
the examples presented in the biography of 
the great and good men who have illustrated 
its principles and borne its testimonies before 
the world, and they fail from lack of instruc- 
tion, to appreciate those principles and testi- 
monies, and to gain that thorough acquaint- 
ance with their meaning and scope which 
can alone make them efficient instruments in 
their maintenance and diffusion. 

Do we not here recognize a leading cause 
of the weakness which concerned members of 
the Society mourn? As this is a direct effect of 
unwarrantable indifference to one of the most 
obvious duties incumbent on individuals and 
religious organizations, is it not also an ob- 
vious cause of increasing declension and 
weakness? 



44 THE PRESENT. 

Five Years' Eeview, 

Those who appreciate the state of facts 
exhibited in the foregoing pages, and desire 
the welfare of the children of our own and 
succeeding generations, will be prepared to 
rejoice that measures are now in progress 
to provide an institution adapted to the 
educational wants of the Society of Friends. 

In the autumn of 1860, a company col- 
lected socially at the house of a much 
esteemed Friend in Baltimore, became in- 
terested in conversing upon the state of edu- 
cation, and a desire was expressed that means 
should be adopted which would lead to a 
higher appreciation of scientific and clas- 
sical learning and its more general diffusion 
throughout the Society. Accordingly on the 
second of Tenth Month, 1860, a meeting was 
convened, at which the venerable Benjamin 
Hallowell, a veteran teacher, presented the 
plan which had lain many years near his 
heart of establishing a school, under the care 
of Friends, at which an education may be 



ADDRESS ISSUED. 45 

obtained equal to that of the best institutions 
of learning in our country, and adapted espe- 
cially to qualify Friends of both sexes for the 
charge of family and neighborhood schools 
heretofore languishing for lack of efficiency 
in their teachers. 

The idea entered into this concern of ele- 
vating, as well the moral as the intellectual 
standard of education, and of promoting the 
growth and influence of the Society of 
Friends, beginning where such labor can 
alone be effectual with the young, the recep- 
tive, growing, and expanding. Such a design 
could not fail to be appreciated by those to 
whom it was explained, and a committee was 
chosen to prepare an address setting forth the 
objects in view, and to solicit the co-operation 
of the larger bodies of Friends in Philadelphia 
and New York. 

An address was prepared forthwith, and 
read at Conferences, held in Philadelphia on 
the 28th of Eleventh Month, and in New 
York on the 10th of Twelfth Month fol- 
lowing. Committees were appointed at each 



46 THE PRESENT. 

of these to co-operate with Baltimore Friends 
in the prosecution of the concern. It is yet 
too soon to write the history of this most im- 
portant movement, but if the measures then 
inaugurated should be crowned with the 
promised success, the names of those who 
were thus foremost in it will go down to 
posterity as worthy of double honor. 

The printing and distribution of this ad- 
dress was so soon followed by those startling 
events which shook the nation to its center 
and have but recently culminated, that the 
efforts toward enlisting the great body of 
Friends, on behalf of this undertaking, may 
be said to have been inaugurated during the 
most anxious time of the great rebellion. 

When many citizens doubted if they or 
their posterity would again enjoy the bless- 
ings of free government — when men of wealth 
held their possessions by so feeble a tenure 
that soon they might not command enough 
of this world's goods to feed and clothe their 
families — when parents, not a few, trembled 
lest their sons, swept into the current that 



CONFERENCES HELD. 47 

carried so many thousands to untimely 
graves, would never return to comfort their 
declining years — when darkness, discourage- 
ment, and uncertainty hung over everything 
in the future, it seemed, to some, out of place 
to be planning great improvements or seek- 
ing to found beneficent institutions. 

It was in the darkest hour that a voice was 
raised in our councils, which had many times 
before been heard in the midst of discourage- 
ments and even obloquy in defense of prog- 
ress and principle, — the voice of one who had 
herself realized in early life the value of a 
Friends' school, — showing the pressing import- 
ance of those educational interests which must 
influence the welfare of society in any event 
and under all circumstances. So fully were 
these views realized, that it was resolved to 
persevere, presenting the subject in every 
community of Friends, where there was an 
ear to hear, and invoking the moral support 
and pecuniary aid of all. 

Conferences were appointed in Friends' 
meeting-houses in city and country; some- 



48 THE PRESENT. 

times these were largely attended; the sub- 
ject was earnestly presented and subscriptions 
solicited in aid of the undertaking. A com- 
mittee for promoting subscriptions to the fund 
met monthly at Kace Street Meeting-house, 
Philadelphia, generally attended by some 
from the country; thus the interest was kept 
alive and the subscription extended. 

The preliminary organization, under the 
name of Friends' Educational Association, 
passed through some difficulties in forming a 
constitution; unavoidable differences of senti- 
ment upon technical points alienated a few 
whose influence has since been missed, but, 
to use the peculiar term so familiar to 
Friends, the concern continued to grow and 
increase. 

At the Annual Meeting in Twelfth Month, 
1862, fifty thousand dollars were reported 
as having been subscribed, — a sum which 
has since been nearly doubled. A Board of 
Managers was selected, consisting of Friends 
of both sexes from various sections of Penn- 
sylvania, New Jersey, New York, and Mary- 



SUBSCRIPTIONS OBTAINED. 49 

land. This Board, which has been con- 
tinued with little alteration, has moved in 
great harmony in the several measures ren- 
dered necessary by the progress of the move- 
ment, and when questions have arisen pre- 
maturely, the ground of confidence has been 
maintained, not only by the officers toward 
each other, but by the great body of sub- 
scribers toward the Board. The selection of 
a location for the proposed institution called 
forth a zealous advocacy of different sites, and 
was followed by corresponding disappoint- 
ment among those whose advocacy was un- 
successful, but the expression by vote of a 
large majority of the stock, as provided by 
the constitution, was a final settlement of the 
question. 

In the course of this work, members of the 
Board, and others interested, have attended 
conferences in nearly all the Monthly Meet- 
ings within the compass of Philadelphia 
Yearly Meeting, numbering fifty, obtaining 
subscriptions from Friends; besides address- 
ing conferences in several sections of New 
5 



50 THE PRESENT. 

York and Baltimore Yearly Meetings, and 
one at Farmington, within the limits of Gene- 
see Yearly Meeting. 

In all these they have found some to re- 
spond cordially to their appeals. The young, 
who, in many sections in the midst of indiffer- 
ence and apathy are impatiently thirsting 
for knowledge; parents who begin to appre- 
ciate the imperative duty they owe to their 
rising families, to supply them with the high- 
est possible culture and development; and 
lastly, the elders and fathers in the church, 
who in looking for a succession of standard- 
bearers, begin to suspect that to the neglect 
of the great interests of education under the 
guarded care of the Society, may be attrib- 
uted much of the weakness which they de- 
plore. 



PROSPECTIVE. 
Swarthmore College. 

It is proposed, under this head, to present 
to the reader a succinct account of the present 
condition, the objects, and plans of the cor- 
poration which has grown out of the Friends' 
Educational Association. In accordance with 
the original design, to furnish a complete 
course of study in the higher branches of 
knowledge, especially with a view to qualify 
teachers, it was early determined to give to 
the proposed institution the full grade of a 
college, under an act of incorporation from 
the State of Pennsylvania. 

While this does not preclude an Academical 
Department, a Normal School, and a Model 
School, all of which are included in the plan, 
it requires the managers to supply instruction 
in the higher branches of knowledge which 
are not thoroughly taught in ordinary private 
institutions. 

By means of the act of incorporation the 

(51) 



52 PROSPECTIVE. 

title to the property is defined and secured to 
those who contribute to purchase and build 
it; and in case of future controversies, it can- 
not be unfairly diverted from them. The 
name Swarthmore College is derived from the 
home of George Fox, after his marriage to 
Margaret Fell. At Swarthmore, near Ulver- 
stone, in England, he himself owned a plot of 
ground, on which he erected a meeting-house, 
which is still standing. 

The stockholders are not necessarily mem- 
bers of the Society of Friends, — a very con- 
siderable number of our fellow-citizens, and 
several in membership and by profession con- 
nected with the orthodox division of the So- 
ciety, have, without solicitation, testified their 
interest in the spread of education by sub- 
scribing to the stock. The managers, how- 
ever, are restricted by the charter to mem- 
bers of the Society of Friends ; they are to be 
elected at the Annual Meeting, each stock- 
holder having one vote. In all questions af- 
fecting the disposition of the property of the 
corporation, a stock vote is provided for. 



THE WEST-DALE PROPERTY. 53 

The Site. 

The property procured for the location of 
Swarthmore College is composed of a portion 
of that known as West-Dale, from having 
been the birth-place of Benjamin West, with 
contiguous land; it is located in Delaware 
County, Pennsylvania, about ten miles from 
Philadelphia, with which city it connects by 
the West Chester and Philadelphia Railroad, 
passing through the place, and furnishing a 
station at a convenient distance from the 
building site. It contains ninety-four acres 
and five perches of land, and is bounded on 
one side by the Springfield and Chester road, 
and on the other by Crum Creek, a winding 
and rapid stream. After a thorough examin- 
ation of the rural districts surrounding Phil- 
adelphia, the managers were generally agreed 
that a more eligible location for such a pur- 
pose could scarcely be found. The land is 
high, commanding an extensive prospect of 
variegated scenery, and a distant view of the 
Delaware River, the ancient town of Chester,,, 
5* 



~>4 PROSPECTIVE. 

the first landing-place of William Penn in his 
Province, and Media, the county town, distant 
one and a half miles, in which, it may be 
remarked, the sale of liquor is prohibited by 
law, in all time to come. There are several 
springs contiguous to each other on the high 
ground, sufficient to furnish an abundant sup- 
ply of pure water, and water-power to pump 
it to the required elevation. On the north- 
west the land is covered with an abundant 
growth of trees, adapted to afford protection 
to the grounds in winter; the wood-land is 
ample for shaded walks, and the banks of 
the stream afford a feature of romantic beau- 
ty rarely surpassed. The property cost 
$21,446.96. 

The Building. 

The Managers are not insensible to the 
mistake which has so often been made in 
carrying out such undertakings, of regarding 
the building as the paramount feature of the 
institution; in all their plans utility has been 
considered before elegance, and economy has 



THE BUILDING. 55 

constituted a leading motive. On the other 
hand, however, so much depends upon the 
convenient arrangement of a large establish- 
ment in securing its economical management, 
and so important is it to provide in the pro- 
posed institution for a large number of the 
several classes it is intended to accommodate, 
that a commodious building, capable of still 
further extension, seems quite necessary. 

The original idea of separate buildings, in 
which something like the family relation 
might be maintained among the inmates, was 
found to require an outlay much beyond the 
cost of a single structure appropriately di- 
vided. The necessity of connecting corri- 
dors and adequate means of conveyance for 
the supplies when cooked, and other require- 
ments of this plan, determined its abandon- 
ment and the union of its desirable features, 
as far as practicable, in a single stone 
structure. 

This, as far as the plans have been matured, 
will consist of a center College building, con- 
taining dining-rooms, kitchen, lecture-room, 



5 f 3 PROSPECTIVE. 

library, reception-room, office, and dwelling 
for the resident officer; two wings parallel to 
this, each containing the residence of a 
teacher and his family, and dormitories for 
about fifty pupils, and, between these and the 
center building, connecting wings, containing 
class-rooms and dormitories, each wing ac- 
commodating about fifty pupils. The dormi- 
tories will be in size about 10 by 15 feet, de- 
signed to accommodate two single beds. The 
building thus projected will contain about 
one hundred and ten pupils of each sex, 
all under appropriate supervision, virtually 
separated in different houses, but so readily 
communicating with the central College build- 
ing as that all may resort there to meals, to 
the morning and evening collections, to lec- 
tures, and for other purposes, without expo- 
sure to the weather. 

Especial attention will be given to the 
ventilation, heating, and lighting of the es- 
tablishment, and to provision against danger 
from fire; the stairways will be ample and 
partly fire-proof, and the isolation of each 



COMPREHENSIVE PLAN. 57 

division will be such that it is hardly possible 
a fire could become general. 

As it is designed to accommodate at least 
four hundred pupils, when the buildings are 
completed, the center building is planned 
with reference to that number, and additions 
are projected which will not interfere with 
the symmetry of the structure. An advant- 
age anticipated from providing for so large 
a number of pupils is, that instruction can be 
proportionally cheapened as the number is 
extended. From all that can be learned in 
advance, and, from the estimate of an ex- 
perienced teacher now engaged in a similar 
institution, it is believed that there will be 
enough to occupy all the accommodations 
provided, as soon as they are ready. 

Several Departments. 

It is proposed to include in Swarthmore 
College — First. An academical or preliminary 
department. Second. A normal department, 
with model school. Third. A collegiate de- 
partment. 



58 PROSPECTIVE. 

The Academical department is regarded as 
of least necessity, as the demand for com- 
mon school education is already partly sup- 
plied by neighborhood schools, and by pri- 
vate boarding schools, which it is no part of 
the plan of this institution to supersede; and 
yet it is intended that this department shall 
be the first to be opened as a necessary prep- 
aration for the Collegiate. As private schools 
adapt their teaching to prepare pupils for the 
Collegiate department, this may have less im- 
portance in the general scheme of instruc- 
tion; yet the experience of other institutions 
would indicate that a much larger number of 
pupils w r ill avail themselves of the academical 
than of the full Collegiate course. 

The Normal department will probably be a 
leading feature as soon as established; the 
demand for teachers, already everywhere ap- 
parent, must greatly increase, as the vast 
Southern country is opened to their labors; 
moreover, the spread of educational reform 
is bringing about a higher appreciation of 
the profession of teaching, and must call for 



NOKMAL AND MODEL SCHOOL. 59 

a better class, both of talents and attain- 
ments, in this, which Anthony Benezet 
justly characterized as "the most exalted 
duty a Christian mind can be engaged in." 

Teaching has only recently been studied as 
a science; yet the normal school begins to be 
regarded as essential to the teacher for the 
same reason as a medical school is to the 
physician. He who would guide the child 
needs to be acquainted not only with the 
knowledge to be imparted, but how to im- 
part it. He should make the faculties of the 
mind his study, and should know how to 
read not only the capacity of his pupil, but 
those secret springs — the affections, the pas- 
sions, and ruling desires — which supply the 
motive-power to the intellect and give direc- 
tion to the forming character. 

For the exercise of the more advanced 
pupils in normal schools in the practice of 
teaching, model schools are maintained. 
These usually consist of classes engaged in 
acquiring the rudiments of learning, whose 
tuition is furnished them gratuitously, or at 



60 PROSPECTIVE. 

a moderate cost. By the establishment of 
such a department, a certain number of or- 
phan children and others whose circum- 
stances render it necessary that they should 
be placed from home when quite young, may 
be economically educated up to the point of 
entering the academical department. How 
far it may accord with the future policy of 
Swarthmore College to extend this depart- 
ment, will depend upon circumstances. May 
it not happen that some benevolently-disposed 
Friend will, out of his abundance, provide a 
home upon the delightful grounds of this 
College for a suitable number of orphans, — so 
generally recognized as objects of Christian 
charity, — thus promoting, at the same time, 
the efficiency of the Normal department? 

The Collegiate department may be admira- 
bly connected with the Normal — the branches 
taught, with the exception of the theory and 
practice of teaching, which might or might 
not be included in the College curriculum, 
may be the same in both, though it would 
not, perhaps, be required of all graduates in 



INSTRUCTION FOE MOTHERS. 61 

the Normal, to go through the complete course 
in the Collegiate. Experience and a mature 
consideration of the subject, by those engaged 
as professors and teachers, when the institu- 
tion is organized, will doubtless develop a 
pohVy which cannot now be foreshadowed.. 
It is, however, to be desired that all students 
who carry from this college its diploma, will 
have learned so much of the art of teaching 
as to make them more useful in communica- 
ting the knowledge they have acquired than 
is the case with young men generally, who 
graduate at our colleges. a To do good and 
communicate" should ever be the pleasure, 
as it is duty, of those who have enjoyed the 
advantages of a liberal education. 

The peculiar advantage of such a course as 
a well-directed Normal School would furnish 
to young women, is obvious from the fact 
that the large majority of these are destined 
to rear children, and, in the exercise of this 
highest duty, the knowledge of how to teach 
removes them in a degree from the necessity 
of sending away their offspring at a tender 
6 



62 PROSPECTIVE. 

age to be trained by others who. whatever 
qualifications they may possess, cannot be an- 
imated by the tenderness and earnestness of 
a mother, — the guardian and teacher ap- 
pointed by Providence, in the order of nature, 
to rear the coming generation. 

Relation of the Sexes at School. 

It is confidently believed that the expe- 
rience of Swarthmore College will be similar 
to that of other institutions in which young 
men and young women, at the age in which 
they are pursuing the higher branches of 
knowledge, are advantageously associated in 
the lecture-room, the class-room, the lyceum, 
at the table, and, with proper restrictions, in 
the ordinary sports appropriate to college life. 
The impression, with some, that such asso- 
ciation would distract the mind from a due 
attention to study, and lead to the frivolity 
so deplored in ordinary society, is not justified 
by the facts. The mental attrition of the 
class-room is especially favorable to students 



PHYSICAL SCIENCES. 63 

forming a just estimate of each other's capa- 
city, and thus losing false ideas of perfection 
in each other, the frequent source of romantic 
attachments. Constantly subjected to artless 
association and competition, they seldom 
exhibit that unnatural constraint and coy- 
ness which distinguish the unaccustomed in- 
tercourse of boys and girls, when first thrown 
together in what is called society; while, un- 
der the constant supervision of teachers, any 
exceptional instances of undue intimacy soon 
become the subject of observation, and it may 
be, of suitable admonition and interference. 

The Scheme of Instruction, 

It would be premature to sketch a plan of 
instruction in the present stage of this enter- 
prise, and it is only in answer to repeated 
inquiries that I shall venture to state the 
views of the managers as far as they have 
been matured and found expression. It is 
proposed to give greater prominence to the 
physical, natural, and chemical sciences than 



64 PROSPECTIVE. 

is common in ordinary colleges. Science is 
the key that unlocks the world we live in, 
and unfolds to us the philosophy of our daily 
pursuits. Our food, our clothing, our houses, 
the methods of warming and ventilating, 
the drainage and improvement of the land, 
the cultivation of crops, the preservation of 
health of ourselves and of the animals under 
our care — are all legitimate scientific studies, 
ministering to our comfort through life, and 
guarding us against many popular errors 
founded in ignorance and superstition. It is, 
moreover, a direct result of scientific studies 
to enlarge our conception of the wisdom and 
goodness of the Creator, and to furnish innu- 
merable and instructive /parallels from the ex- 
ternal universe illustrative of those sublime 
spiritual truths, which are so admirably con- 
veyed to the mind by comparison with objects 
which are visible and tangible. 

Oral and experimental instruction are espe- 
cially aimed at in this connection. Nothing 
so fastens the attention and impresses the 
memory as a direct demonstration of a great 



NATURAL HISTORY. 65 

truth by experiment. Every lecturer must 
have observed how the most sluggish student, 
who will fall asleep over books, and even 
wander from a subject eloquently and co- 
gently presented in words, will instantly 
seize upon an experimental illustration, and 
often comprehend it more fully than others 
who might be considered far more appre- 
ciative. Hence the importance of ample ap- 
paratus for illustrating the facts of chemical 
and physical science, which are opening to 
philosophers, in our day, richer fields for dis- 
covery than any heretofore presented in the 
history of science. With a view, also, to 
thorough acquaintance with practical chem- 
istry, it is designed to establish a laboratory 
in which the chemical class can be carried 
through a course of analysis. 

Natural history is also proposed to be 
taught, and an extensive cabinet aimed at, 
illustrative of every department of this study. 
It is a subject of profound regret to many 
thinkers in our country, that there is so little 
for the people to see of the works of creation, 
6* 



66 PROSPECTIVE. 

classified scientifically, and giving an idea of 
the gradations by which every created thing 
is linked into — 

" One stupendous whole, 

Whose body Nature is, and God the soul." 

The beautiful grounds belonging to the 
College will, it is hoped, be planted with a 
great variety of trees, furnishing a study of 
practical interest to those especially who are 
so favored as to enjoy future opportunities 
for country life. A garden of classified plants 
would be quite practicable, and would be a 
rare attraction in our country, besides fur- 
nishing to the pupils an opportunity to become 
practical botanists with a facility enjoyed by 
none of their predecessors. It may be thought 
that the managers are laying out plans which 
none of them will probably live to execute, 
but this should not discourage them from 
working "while it is called day," trusting 
that others may enter into their labors, and 
that so desirable a consummation may be re- 
alized by those who may come after them. 



THE PRINCIPLES OF MORALITY. 67 

It is not deemed necessary to speak at large 
of the higher mathematics, the ground-work 
of so much that is practical in science, and 
a means of mental discipline universally re- 
garded as in the highest degree important. 
Nor of language, which, viewed as a science, 
is one of the most profound that can claim 
the attention of the human intellect. There 
are capacities and tastes especially suited to 
this study, and, as a means of disciplining 
the mind, exercising the memory, and forming 
the judgment, it is a necessary element in 
our scheme of education ; besides, the prac- 
tical application of Latin and Greek to the no- 
menclature of the sciences, and to a thorough 
understanding of our own and the other mod- 
ern languages, makes an acquaintance with 
them essential to a thorough student, — espe- 
cially to one who is to teach others. 

History, intellectual philosophy, the prin- 
ciples of morality, as maintained by Friends, 
which are confidently believed to be far in 
advance of those ordinarily taught, will all be 
subjects to be introduced into the course of 



68 PROSPECTIVE 

instruction at Swarthmore College, as its 
means increase, and the properly qualified 
teachers are found. A caution rests on the 
minds of the members of the Board to intro- 
duce no unprofitable subjects of controversy 
into this institution ; and it is their firm belief 
that as solid and substantial learning is im- 
parted upon subjects of practical interest, less 
importance will be attached to visionary ideas, 
and less interest felt in useless speculations. 

Systems of education are now somewhat 
in a transition state. Allusion has been made 
in the Introduction to this essay to views 
which have obtained among enlightened 
Friends in the past, and which are advo- 
cated by numerous writers in our time, look- 
ing toward the introduction of the practical 
element more prominently into advanced 
systems of education. Our Government has 
acted upon this idea in appropriating a large 
amount of the public domain to the main- 
tenance of schools in which theoretical and 
practical science must be leading features. 
The testing of the capacity of these to develop 



KATIONAL ENJOYMENTS. 69 

a high intellectual culture fitted to the condi- 
tions and requirements of American life, is pe- 
culiarly a work of our day. In parting with 
the aristocratic idea of an educated class, 
should we not adopt the democratic idea of 
an education open to all who have the talent 
to avail themselves of it and adapted to pre- 
pare men and women for the higher walks in 
agriculture, the mechanic arts, trade, and 
business of every kind, as well as for what 
have been termed the learned professions ? 

Far be it from me to restrict the idea of an 
education to mere preparation for business; 
no scheme of teaching deserves that name 
which does not aim to prepare the pupil for 
mental employments beyond the range of 
practical life, to open channels of profitable 
reflection and study leading to pure and ra- 
tional enjoyment, embellishing and refining 
the whole character and the life. Such an 
education should be kept in view by every 
parent who would qualify his children for 
active usefulness and rational enjoyment, 
and such, it is confidently believed, will be 



70 PROSPECTIVE. 

aimed at by those intrusted with framing the 
future policy and superintending the manage- 
ment of Swarthmore College. 

Financial. 

Various estimates have been made of the 
cost of the required college buildings, but the 
uncertainty in regard to the price of material 
and labor makes it impossible to determine 
this in advance. With a view to avail our- 
selves of the anticipated decline in prices, 
the contracts will, for the present, include 
only portions of the building at a time, the 
digging of cellars and laying foundations 
during the present autumn, the erection of a 
portion of the walls above ground in the 
spring, and so forth, the intention being to 
build such parts first as will avail for the 
purposes of the Academical department. In 
no event are all the buildings likely to cost 
less than $200,000, and their furniture and 
apparatus $50,000. Of this aggregate, about 
$70,000 is now in hand. 



FUTURE SUBSCRIPTIONS. 71 

There will be pressing necessity to push 
the subscriptions vigorously to enable the 
work to go on to speedy completion, but we 
are encouraged by the experience of similar 
institutions to believe that when built, Swarth- 
more College will be a nucleus around which 
much of the benevolence and public spirit of 
the Society will gather, — that future dona- 
tions and bequests will enable the managers 
to enlarge the facilities for instruction at the 
same time that they lower its cost and extend 
its blessings to many who would otherwise be 
deprived of it from want of means. 

We necessarily postpone to the future the 
opening of subscriptions toward the estab- 
lishment of scholarships, giving education 
and subsistence to meritorious pupils; to- 
ward the creation and augmentation of an 
ample library, to which valuable contribu- 
tions of books have already been promised; 
toward the collection of a museum of natural 
history and art, and the purchase of astro- 
nomical apparatus, none of which are in- 
cluded in our present estimates. Our aim is 



72 PROSPECTIVE. 

to build and open this College with the neces- 
sary means of instruction as soon as possible. 

We cannot doubt the abundant means 
in the Society of Friends to erect and main- 
tain any institution which the interests of 
their children or of the Society demand. 
There is wealth enough. Some individual 
members could erect and endow this college 
without abridging a single comfort of life, 
and there are many who could well afford 
subscriptions of such amounts as rapidly to 
make up the fund required; and it may be 
safely stated of Friends generally, that there 
are few who could not afford to take one or 
more shares in the stock. Add to this the 
assistance proffered by some not in member- 
ship, who desire an opportunity of aiding in 
the good work, and anticipate sharing its 
advantages, and we have every reason to 
expect that success will attend the effort. 

Friends have fewer calls upon their liberal- 
ity in connection with the support of their re- 
ligious institutions than others; they have no 
clergy to support — no missionary enterprises 



TRUE VALUE OF MONEY. 78 

— their meeting-houses are plain, and require 
little expenditure — their habits, as individ- 
uals, are generally economical — their indus- 
try and thrift almost proverbial, so that they 
rarely fail to accumulate property. It is, in- 
deed, in this habit of accumulation that one 
of their chief snares lies hidden; "habit is 
second nature," and it is often hard to un- 
learn in later life what in youth was properly 
held up as a virtue — the habit of saving. On 
the other hand, no one who has not accus- 
tomed himself to it knows the luxury of giv- 
ing, and especially of seeing the fruits of his 
bounty. 

The uselessness of money to its possessor, 
except to the extent of providing comforts 
and means of rational enjoyment, and its 
immense value when appropriated toward 
the advancement and happiness of others, are 
only fully apparent to such as have learned 
how to administer their own estates for ob- 
jects of real utility and beneficence. May it 
not be said with truth, that only such realize 
1 



74 PROSPECTIVE. 

the fullest enjoyment from wealth, or find it 
promotive of their highest interests? 

It is a common observation that many men 
of large means have left estates to purposes of 
public utility, whose benevolent intentions 
have been inadequately carried out by those 
intrusted with the disposal of their bequests; 
and it seems to be a growing determination of 
the benevolent to give, during their lifetime, 
toward such objects as present themselves in 
the light of public benefactions, discrimina- 
ting according to their own judgment, and 
themselves sharing in the pleasurable occu- 
pation of appropriating their means. 

The munificent donation of Matthew Vas- 
sar for the establishment of a Female College 
at Poughkeepsie, New York, already amount- 
ing to several hundred thousands of dollars — 
the recent offer of Ezra Cornell, of Ithaca, New 
York, of half a million dollars and about 200 
acres of land, for the establishment, with the 
aid of funds appropriated to the State by the 
U. S. Government, of a college to provide 
instruction in such branches of learning as 



DUPLICATION OF SUBSCRIPTIONS. 75 

are related to agriculture and the mechanical 
arts; and the still more recent offer of a like 
sum, by Asa Packer, a wealthy citizen of 
Pennsylvania, toward a college to be located 
in this State, all show an appreciation of the 
value of education, and offer noble examples 
to those who, as stewards over abundance 
of this world's goods, must feel the responsi- 
bility of giving an account of their steward- 
ships. 

While these considerations are respectfully 
offered to the wealthy, with a cordial invita- 
tion to consider the claims of Swarthmore 
College to their liberal contributions and be- 
quests, the writer of this would close his ap- 
peal by asking those who, like himself, are 
still struggling toward a competence, to iden- 
tify themselves with a movement promising 
such permanent benefits to the children of 
the present and future generations. Of the 
money thus far subscribed, much the largest 
part has come in subscriptions of less than 
one hundred dollars. The managers look for 
a general duplication of these subscriptions, and 



76 PROSPECTIVE. 

ask that every individual interested in the 
perpetuity of the Society of Friends, and in 
the welfare of the children growing up under 
its influence, shall become a stockholder in 
Swarthmore College — the rich contributing 
from their abundance— those in moderate cir- 
cumstances in less amount — all according 
to their means — to establish what we confi- 
dently believe will be a great and obvious 
blessing for ages to come. 

An association embracing the young and 
old, the farmer and citizen, the rich and those 
in moderate circumstances, the progressive 
and conservative, interesting all in an insti- 
tution of real utility and practical advantage, 
must of itself, have an important influence in 
consolidating and perpetuating the Society in 
whose interest it was organized, and creating 
and diffusing a wholesome public spirit among 
its members. 



APPENDIX. 



An Act to incorporate Swarthniore College. 

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Repre- 
sentatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in 
General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted: That 
James Martin, John M. Ogden, Ezra Michener, Mahlon 
K. Taylor, Thomas Ridgway, James Mott, Dillwyn 
Parrish, William W. Longstreth, William Dorsey, Ed- 
ward Hoopes, William C. Biddle, Joseph Powell, Jo- 
seph Wharton, John Sellers, Clement Biddle, P. P. 
Sharpless, Edward Parrish, Levi K. Brown, Hugh 
M Ilvain, Franklin Shoemaker, and their associates 
and successors forever, be, and they are hereby made 
and constituted a body politic and corporate, under the 
corporate title of Swarthniore College, and under that 
name shall have perpetual succession, and are hereby 
empowered, and made capable in law, to purchase, take, 
hold, and enjoy to them and their successors, lands, tene- 
ments, and hereditaments, stock, goods, chattels, and 
effects; Provided, the clear annual value thereof shall 
not exceed thirty thousand dollars, and to sell, demise, 
convey, assure, transfer, and dispose of their estate, or 
interest therein, and also to improve and augment, and 
apply the same, with the rents, issues, profits, and in- 
come thereof, to the purposes of their institution ; and 



78 APPENDIX. 

the said corporation, by the name aforesaid, shall and 
may sue, and be sued ; plead, and be impleaded ; an- 
swer, and be answered ; defend, and be defended, in all 
courts of law and equity, and shall have ] tower to 
make, have, and use a common seal, and the same to 
change, alter, and renew at their pleasure, and also to 
make and execute such by-laws, ordinances, and regu- 
lations, not contrary to the laws and constitution of 
this Commonwealth, as to them shall seem meet. 

Section 2. That the said corporation be authorized 
to establish and maintain a school and college, for the 
purpose of imparting to persons of both sexes, knowl- 
edge in the various branches of science, literature, and 
the arts, and the board of managers shall have power to 
confer upon the graduates of the said college, and upon 
others, when, by their proficiency in learning, they may 
be entitled thereto, such degrees as are conferred by 
other colleges or universities in the United States. 

Section 3. That the capital stock, of the said corpo- 
ration, shall be fifty thousand dollars, divided into two 
thousand shares of twenty-five dollars each, with the 
privilege to increase the same, from time to time, to a 
sum not exceeding three hundred thousand dollars, and 
the said school or college may go into operation when 
the sum of fifty thousand dollars has been subscribed, 
and the stock shall be transferable in conformity with 
the rules and by-laws of the corporation. The meet- 
ings shall be held annually, twenty-five stockholders 
shall form a quorum, and special meetings may be 
called by the managers at their discretion, and notice 
shall be given of the annual and special meetings of the 
corporators, at least ten days previous to the time at 
which they are to be held, by advertisement in three 



APPENDIX. 79 

daily newspapers, one published in the City of New 
York, one in the City of Philadelphia, and one in the 
City of Baltimore ; the officers of the corporation shall 
be two clerks, a treasurer, and thirty-two managers, all 
of whom shall be members of the religious Society of 
Friends, and shall be chosen by ballot from among the 
stockholders at their annual meeting; but in case of 
failure to elect the officers at the stated time, those in 
office shall continue until others are chosen. The 
clerks shall be ex-officio members of the Board of 
Managers, and eleven members shall constitute a 
quorum for the transaction of business. The govern- 
ment and direction of the said school and college, the 
appointment and employment of professors, and other 
officers concerned therewith, and the general manage- 
ment of the affairs of the College, shall be intrusted to 
the Board of Managers, who shall have power to enact 
such rules and regulations, not inconsistent with the 
constitution, and amendments thereto, adopted by the 
corporators as they shall see fit. 

(Signed) Henry C. Johnson, 

Speaker of the House of Representatives. 

John P. Penney, 

Speaker of the Senate. 

Approved the first day of April, A.D. 1864. 
A. Gr. Curtin, Governor. 



MANAGERS 

OF 

SWARTHMORE COLLEGE, 

elected 12tii Mo. Otii, 18P>4. 



William Dorset, 
Isaac Stephens, 
Joseph Powell, 
Edward Hoopes, 
Hugh M'Ilvain, 
Clement Biddle. 

Samuel Willets, 
Samuel J. Underhill, 
Edward Merritt, 
John D. Hicks, 
John G. Haviland, 
Elavood Burdsall. 

B. Rush Roberts, 
Levi K. Brown, 
Gerard H. Reese, 
Thomas H. Mathews. 



Deborah F. Wharton, 
Helen G. Longstreth, 
Harriet E. Stockly, 
Rachel T. Jackson, 
Phebe W. Foulke, 
Letitia S. Cadwalader. 

Hannah W. Haydock, 
Caroline Underhill, 
Lydia S. Haviland, 
Ann S. Dudley, 
Eliza H. Bell, 
Phebe M. Bunting. 

Rebecca Turner, 
Jane 8. Towns km.. 
Mary L. Roberts, 

Si san H. Jones. 



Clerks. 



Edward Parrish, 



Edith W. Atlee. 



Treasurer. 
Wm. Canby Biddle. 



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